Book 2 in the Nemesis Series
She's a strong woman who runs her own high-profile security and protection agency. He's a burned-out agent with Mossad on a personal crusade. But when Adam Molloy saves Nicole Wells' life at a Mexican resort, circumstances bind them together. Not to mention the instant chemistry that is so hot it rivals the Mexican sun. One predatory kiss and Nicki's body melts. They may be after drug dealers and killers, but there's plenty of time for powerful orgasms and inventive erotic activities.It's soon evident that her would-be killer and Adam's crusade intersect. The chase takes them from the Yucatan Peninsula to Washington, D.C., to a private island in the Bahamas. And the sex takes them to a new level of physical pleasure. Can they win this chase and escape the danger before the killers strike again? And will the pleasure last Until Midnight and for many midnights after that?
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An Excerpt From: UNTIL MIDNIGHT
Copyright © DESIREE HOLT & CERISE DELAND, 2011
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
Chapter One
Nicole Welles drew in a deep breath, inhaling the salt-scented air and listening to the rhythmic lap of ocean waves against the sand. She consciously forced every muscle in her body to relax.
The last two weeks had been a bitch. Financially rewarding but no less than a trip to hell deserved. Nemesis had been contracted by Macmillan Global to retrieve their boss who had been kidnapped by one of the largest drug cartels and held for ransom. Since this particular cartel was known for returning their hostages more dead than alive, Macmillan wanted the boss out right now.
They’d done it. She’d led the team herself. There had been some bloodshed but fortunately not on their side. Now she was trying to decompress in a bungalow at a very private, very exclusive resort on the beach in tiny Costalegre near Puerto Vallarta.
She was thinking about heading back to the villa for a shower and turned over to fish her watch out of her beachbag when a heavy thunk! sounded behind her. Instinctively her brain registered what it was and she rolled off the lounge onto the sand, grabbing for her beachbag where her 9mm was stashed. When she lifted her eyes to see what was happening they were met by a pair of very tanned legs dusted with dark hair.
“I have a gun,” she said, pointing it upward.
“So do I.” The voice was deep and almost gravelly. “Fucking lot of good yours would do you if I planned to kill you. You’d already be toast.”
Keeping a two-handed grip on the gun, she rolled lithely to her knees and then to her feet. Inches away from her stood what she could only think of as a man who was menacingly sexy. And tall. Much taller than she was, which was a trick since she was five ten. Shaggy black hair framed a face defined by deep grooves in the cheeks, a square jaw and startling blue eyes beneath heavy brows and thick lashes.
Dressed in a loose shirt and shorts, every bit of his muscular body she could see was deeply tanned. And the gun he was holding was even bigger than hers. An Israeli Desert Eagle, one she was very familiar with.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“The man who just saved your life.” His voice was deep and hoarse as if he’d been shouting for a long time. “Who are you?”
“What do you mean, saved my life?”
He looked up and down the private stretch of beach, empty except for the two of them. As far as Nicki knew, only three of the resort’s bungalows were occupied at the moment.
“Put away your gun and I’ll show you.”
Put away the gun? She stared at him for a long moment, something weird sizzling between them, then lowered the 9mm to her side.
“That’s as put away as it’s going to get until I know what’s going on around here.”
“Come on.”
He, too, lowered his gun and closed steel fingers around her wrist, tugging her toward the thick groves of palm and coconut trees bordering the beach. Carefully pulling back a prickly bougainvillea he pointed at a body shoved against the roots of the shrub.
Nicki stared. “Who’s that?”
“Since it’s you he was trying to kill, I thought perhaps that was a question you could answer.” His voice had a faint accent to it, one that Nicki was having trouble placing.
She crouched down to get a better look at the body. Dressed in faded jeans and a dark t-shirt, he had the definite darker skin and features of a Hispanic.
“I’d say Mexican at first glance.” She noted the bullet hole in the back of his head and looked up at the man standing next to her. “Your work?”
He nodded. “I was walking down to the beach and saw him lining up to blow your brains out.”
“Look at him. What’s he doing here?” Nicki peered through the dense foliage that crowded the crushed shell pathways. “This place only has eight bungalows and the owners are very particular who occupies them.”
The man made a sound suspiciously like a grunt. “Tell me about it. And they’ve got enough guards here to protect a third world country.”
She nodded. “People like him can’t just walk onto the grounds and wander around at will.”
“So.”
She stood up, still holding her gun by her side. “Yes, so.” Shifting her gun to her left hand she extended her right one. “Since you saved my life I guess I should introduce myself. Nicole Welles.”
His grip was firm and warm, but Nicki wasn’t prepared for the little currents of electricity that raced through her body when their skin made contact. She schooled herself to retrieve her hand smoothly rather than yank it away, her first reaction.
“Adam Molloy.”
They stared at each other.
“Well, then.” She looked down at the body again. “We need to do something about the trash here.”
“I don’t think we want to take him up to the main building and call the police. Someone sent him. He didn’t conjure this up all by himself. Let’s stash him somewhere and let his bosses wonder what happened to him.”
She looked at him with a speculative gaze. “Interesting solution. Are you someone I should be afraid of?”
He smiled, white even teeth flashing against his dark skin and one dimple winking at the corner of his mouth. “Hey, I’m the guy who saved your life, remember?”
“Yeah, but you could have done that to get close to me.” She took a cautious step backward.
“If I wanted you dead, Miss Welles, you’d already be lying here next to this idiot.”
She realized suddenly that she was wearing the tiniest bikini she’d been able to find and Adam Molloy was letting his eyes take a slow journey over her body. She turned slightly so he couldn’t see the instant puckering of her barely covered nipples. Well, wasn’t this a fine mess. She had no idea who this man really was, who the man was who’d tried to kill her, and her body, all on its own, was thinking about sex.
“Let’s clean the place up.” Molloy’s deep voice cut into her thoughts. He shoved his gun into the waistband of his shorts at the small of his back and lifted the body as if it weighed nothing, hard muscles flexing beneath the tanned skin. “Why don’t you gather your belongings from the beach while I handle this…situation. I’ll be back in a minute.”
He strode away without waiting for an acknowledgment from her.
Nicki stared after his figure as it disappeared onto the trees. What an arrogant ass. And who exactly was Adam Molloy that he was staying in this very private place? Besides a walking sex machine, that is.
Nicole! Snap out of it. Find out what the hell is going on.
She stomped back to where her things still lay next to the lounge she’d been using. Picking up the sarong that matched her bathing suit, she wrapped it around herself and knotted it under one arm. She stowed her gun in her beachbag, drew the drawstring tight and slung it over her shoulder. She was halfway back to her bungalow when tall, dark and mysterious Adam Molloy materialized seemingly out of nowhere.
She stopped in the middle of the path. “Finished already? What did you do, feed him to the fish?”
There was that smile again, making her knees suddenly week and the pulse deep in her womb thump out its rhythm. Holy shit! Nicole Welles never reacted this way. Not to any man. Oh, she was far from a stranger to sex but it was always carefully planned and on her terms. She never allowed herself to react this way.
It must be the situation. It’s not every day someone tries to assassinate me.
“In a matter of speaking. I’ll tell you all the gory details if you buy me a drink.”
“I don’t think I’m much in the mood for the bar. And I’d like to try to find out who that idiot with the gun is. Was.”
He took her arm and urged her along. Her feet moved as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Me, neither. But I’ll bet your bungalow has a fully stocked bar. I know mine does.”
She stopped, pulling against his hold. “We’re not going to your bungalow.”
“No. We’re going to yours.” He tugged her forward again. “Don’t you want to figure out who that guy is and how he got here?”
“I don’t think the answers are at my place.”
“Right. That’s where we’re going to talk about this and dig for answers. Come on.”
She found herself at the door to her bungalow, wondering how he even knew which one was hers. Oh, right. With so few people on the grounds he’d probably scoped out all the guests as soon as he checked in. And when exactly had that been?
“Aren’t you going to open the door?” He had just a touch of amusement in his voice. “It’s not polite to keep people standing outside. Not to mention possibly dangerous.”
Nicki pulled out her key card, shoved it into the slot and pushed the handle down. The artificially cooled air hit her warm skin with a frigid blast. She hurried to adjust the thermostat and threw her bag on a table, then moved behind the built-in bar.
“All right. I suppose I do owe you a drink. And I do want some answers. What’s your pleasure?”
His mouth curved in a wicked smile. “If I said ‘you’, would I be overstepping my bounds?”
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